want something to happen here and acknowledge, yes, the president had some leverage because he won the election but i thought both sides had and they were very close to a deal, gregg. that is the crazy thing here. they were very close. we had implosions in terms of the boehner leadership unable to hold his troops together. gregg: right. >> these guys are close. i think at this point, part of the negotiating dynamic is if we get close to the i have cliff you can get the troops to line up behind you and say, don't do it. that is terrible for the american people. that is bad way to run the government. gregg: mary katherine, no way to run a government but we've been saying that for 200 years. and i have too. but, mary katherine, look, what does it say about boehner's leadership, when he can't even get a vote on his own plan? >> no, i think that was a good opportunity for republicans to pass something. i think many of them made a mistake in foiling that plan because i think it was a decent one that had good points even though they obviously didn't get everything they wanted. i still think this could